[SECTION IV—NATIONAL LIBRARY CENTRE]
The National Library Centre, in addition to acting as the division responsible for the headquarters work of the Service, has continued to promote the cooperative use of library resources. Staff at headquarters are still working under very difficult conditions and there is a continuing and pressing need both for administrative working space and adequate housing for the book collections.
[Inter-library Loan]—All inter-library loan requests for books and periodicals the location of which is not known are sent to the National Centre. Items which are not found in the Union Catalogue of non-fiction books, the Union List of Serials, or other bibliographical sources are listed in the weekly publication Book Resources, which is sent to 39 libraries for checking.
| 1956-57 | 1957-58 | |||
| Number | Percentage | Number | Percentage | |
| Interloan cards received | 7,197 | 100.0 | 7,640 | 100.0 |
| Supplied from National Library Service | 4,312 | 59.9 | 4,411 | 57.7 |
| Supplied from other Wellington libraries | 171 | 2.4 | 139 | 1.8 |
| Supplied from Union Catalogue records | 949 | 13.2 | 1,055 | 13.8 |
| Supplied from Union List of Serials | 101 | 1.4 | 173 | 2.3 |
| Not supplied for various reasons | 641 | 8.9 | 664 | 8.7 |
| Listed on Book Resources | 1,023 | 14.2 | 1,198 | 15.7 |
Four hundred and seventy-five titles not found in any library were ordered for national stock.
The number of requests received by the centre represents probably less than half the total volume of traffic among New Zealand libraries, the proportion of direct interloan being higher in the special and university libraries. Interloan was devised and introduced among libraries by the New Zealand Library Association and in its operation the responsibility of the National Library Service is not merely to act as a clearing house but to provide all the material it reasonably can to make the system effective. Other libraries participate reciprocally, or lend so that they may the more freely borrow. The contribution, as has always been expected, is a varying one and one or two libraries may consider that they have a substantial and unrealisable credit balance in their favour. The point beyond which certain libraries may feel they cannot go in the common interest has not so far been determined administratively but it may be necessary to consider this. If so, it is better that it be done quantitatively on the basis of a common library policy rather than that the present procedure should become an embarrassment or be administered capriciously or conservatively.
[Central Bureau for Library Book Imports]—After the introduction of import control in January the Government approved that the facilities of the bureau should be extended to meet the situation and assure libraries of their essential supplies. The bureau was set up in 1940 as a responsibility of the Country Library Service as a result of discussions between the Government and the Library Association. Because libraries undertook to avoid unnecessary duplication and develop cooperative ways of recording and using their holdings, the 50 per cent cut in book imports made in 1939 was restored and the necessary machinery established to safeguard the country's supply of essential publications.
The situation now is that recommendations for licences are made to the Comptroller of Customs in two categories: firstly, block licence in annual or six-monthly lots to cover a full licensing period, on behalf of public libraries serving a population of 20,000 and over, university libraries, and a few special libraries; secondly, individual recommendations on behalf of smaller libraries which are made on the basis of orders sent in when making application. Book-sellers are expected to give libraries a proportionate share of their 1956 transactions on which their current licence would be computed.
Block licence recommendations, normally made at the end of the year—and for some years only for anticipated imports from scheduled countries, chiefly the dollar area—were held over until the present calendar year and statistically will be included in the figures for the 1958 licensing period.
[Libraries of Government Departments]—A total of £45,357 was spent on behalf of Government Departments financed from the Consolidated Fund and purchasing through the National Library Service. Of this total, £25,344 was for standing orders, chiefly periodical subscriptions. The value, nationally, of a range of periodicals wider than that which is now received by all the libraries would scarcely be disputed, but the degree of duplication between and particularly within Departments continues to cause concern.